A former Arizona State University whiz kid and his brainiac young associates are making their mark in digital marketing — all the way to the Camelback Corridor in Phoenix.

In recent months, their Tempe-based company, Foresold Digital Marketing, has acquired Valley-based Lezal Marketing and moved into office space on East Camelback Road, where 20-year-old CEO Josh Elizetxe said its commitment to clients will not change.

“We are setting out to build the best digital agency that ever existed,” said Elizetxe, who is also CEO of BeenEvaluated.com and who graduated in two years from ASU summa cum laude with a degree in computer information systems.

Foresold, founded in 2007, moved from 404 S. Mill Ave., Suite 201, in Tempe to 3900 E. Camelback Road, Suite 140, in Phoenix during the first week of November. There have been growing pains during the rapid expansion and the move, but the youthful leaders have steered their firm adeptly.

Joining Elizetxe in the move was Johann Beishline, former CEO of Lezal Marketing, which Foresold acquired in September. Beishline, also 20, is now the director of search marketing and a partner in Foresold with Elizetxe.

“Obviously, you’re giving up a little part of yourself (in the acquisition) because you’ve put a lot of work into it, but we’ve worked together before on projects, so it was the start of a smooth, comfortable relationship,” said Beishline, who will graduate from ASU a year early in 2014 with a degree in computer information systems.

Elizetxe and Beishline said they moved from Tempe because their rent would increase with development coming to the area and they want to be closer to their Scottsdale clients.

Elizetxe said they’re looking to come back to Tempe and ASU, which they love, when they have enough growth and employees to purchase office space in buildings that are being developed.

Purchasing Lezal Marketing was part of Elizetxe’s strategy for growth, and he said he knew that he and Beishline would work together one day after meeting him two years ago.

“I made it a personal goal for the rest of my life to identify brilliant people and partner with them,” Elizetxe said.

“I know that with growing up in a very poor neighborhood, those schools focus more on the kids who can’t pass the AIMS test. I aced the AIMS test. I was always outside of those boundaries and instead of being lifted, like, ‘Josh, go and do it,’ I was pushed aside, ‘You’re good, you don’t need help, be quiet.’ I was never really pushed to become greater. I’m not complaining, but maybe I could have done better. I had to do it on my own.”

Elizetxe was the first in his family to graduate from high school — he was valedictorian at Alhambra High School in west Phoenix — and he said he became interested in technology from reading books.

Elizetxe was dropped off at the library every day after school to read and play games on the computer. One day, the book “Web Design for Dummies” caught his attention.

“I knew the concept of a website, I just didn’t know you could actually make one,” he said. “I thought you have to have a degree, you had to have certifications, you had to be the government. I was like, there is no way you can make a website.”

After that, he started blogs covering any subject he could think of — technology, sports, even pregnancy — and one of his technology blogs took off. He didn’t know it because he didn’t have software in place to measure how many hits he was getting, but a company approached him about advertising on the site, and to his dad’s disbelief, he was paid every month for it.

“I showed him (my dad) it was cash in my hand, and I got hooked that you could turn something virtual, that’s essentially not real in the real world but people are willing to fork over tons of money to buy ad space, to buy the website itself,” he said.

“I sold it when I was about 15, and I bought my car with it. I started creating all kinds of blogs. I got fascinated with the idea that you could build something, almost overnight, and show it to potentially millions of people in 24 hours. … That’s the thing about the Internet. Nowhere else can you be 14 years old and make a significant amount of money sitting in a public library. That’s unheard of anywhere else.”

Since then, Elizetxe has done other projects and was a speaker at ASU numerous times while a student, where he noticed Beishline, who was attracted to Foresold’s growth and wanted to be a part of it.

Beishline said he comes from a risk-averse, traditional, middle-class family that didn’t have the entrepreneurial spirit he does. He said he grew up in Phoenix reading news and was fascinated by technology.

After meeting Elizetxe, he knew he wanted to start his own business.

Foresold now has 15 full-time employees and 17 to 20 contractors. Elizetxe said it has grown to become a multimillion-dollar agency; its focus is companies with $10 million to $250 million in revenue, but Foresold also works with non-profits and small businesses.

Foresold’s focus is to bring value from the digital world to its clients to improve their bottom line. Elizetxe said where it differs from other companies is that it uses cutting-edge technology and adds value to its clients’ companies, not just page hits and an advertisement.

“A lot of times, I feel like Harry Potter or a magician, and it really feels that way because it’s virtual and you can do anything,” Elizetxe said.

He added that traditional agencies are far behind in technology and too lazy to keep up, that they would rather create an advertisement and sit on their clients’ money.

“We like to say we don’t sell advertising to a business. A business that we are targeting should know already that they need advertising. … There’s something I hear go around sometimes that advertising is only for companies that don’t have a good-enough product. I don’t think it’s true.”

Foresold client Lisa Chernikoff, marketing manager for Strata Decision Technology, a leader in the development of innovative Software as a Service solutions for financial and business analytics and decision support in health care, says she quickly became a believer.

“To me, Josh’s age is not important, but I do think that being a young guy, Josh brings great energy and enthusiasm to the table, along with his vast industry knowledge,” Chernikoff said.

Strata Decision Technology, based in Chicago, is used by more than 1,000 health-care organizations.

Daehee Park, 25, is co-founder of Tempe-based Tuft & Needle, which started in June 2012 and crafts the Tuft & Needle Bed, which is rated No. 1 in the mattress category on Amazon.com. Park approached Foresold after meeting Elizetxe at ASU’s Entrepreneurship Club and became a client.

“Joshua is a go-getter and will go above and beyond to over-deliver on expectations,” Park said. “Most importantly, Josh is very open to communication and dedicated to growing a long-term relationship with his clients.”

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